By Betsy Russell
In the fall, while traveling around southern and eastern Idaho for four IDOG open government seminars, I heard about some open meeting law problems in the city of Twin Falls. The Twin Falls Times-News reported on the problems and brought them to everyone’s attention, and the city initially took a defensive posture.
I ended up filing an open meeting law complaint with the local prosecutor, but in the end, the city reformed its practices and the outcome was a good one – especially for citizens of Twin Falls and their access … [Read more...]

By Audrey Dutton
Covering the big St. Luke’s antitrust trial in U.S. District Court in Boise involved hours spent waiting outside a closed courtroom, extensively redacted documents, and cryptic references in court to information not made public.
Now the Statesman, Idaho Press Club and several other Idaho news organizations are waiting to hear from a federal appeals court on their plea for openness, after U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill left it up to lawyers and business executives to decide what should be public in the … [Read more...]

By Deanna Darr
Idaho Press Club members are a talented group of people, and we’re not just talking about being able to track down the perfect source, write a story that inspires the masses or put together a presentation that dazzles all who gaze upon it.
At this year’s annual awards banquet on Saturday, May 3, we’re planning to show off some of the artistic talents of our membership. For the first time, it will be IPC members who take the stage during the event’s social hour, providing the musical score for the night and showing … [Read more...]

Interviewer’s intro: Julie has been our Idaho Press Club lobbyist, pro-bono, for the past two legislative sessions. She’s a crackerjack lobbyist and we’re lucky to have her pulling for us on open-government issues. She made national waves last year with her push to remove Idaho’s sales tax from Girl Scout cookies – another pro-bono effort, as Julie served on the board of the Girl Scouts Silver Sage Council and her daughter, Ella, is an active scout. She also represents a list of clients and is a familiar face at Idaho’s Statehouse.
Press … [Read more...]

By John Hecht
Paul Farhi, media reporter for the Washington Post, will be the keynote speaker at the Oppenheimer Ethics Symposium at the University of Idaho in Moscow Friday, March 28. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Farhi's presentation is titled "Should the Press Report National Secrets?" His discussion will focus on news coverage of Edward Snowden, spying by the National Security Agency (NSA), and national security leaks.
"The symposium theme will be developed around media reporting of national security … [Read more...]

Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship winner reports
By Bridget Ryder
One of the most interesting aspects of journalism is that for all your planning, for everything you think a story is, you never really know what is going to happen, especially when you take your small-town newspaper job to a foreign country.
I had an idea—go to Mexico and see what life was like for seasonal workers and others with connections to Teton Valley. I wrote the brainstorm into a pitch for the $500 at stake in the Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship. In … [Read more...]

Daily/Weekly Newspaper
COEUR D’ALENE PRESS
After five years, city reporter Tom Hasslinger has departed for the Garden Island newspaper on Kauai, where he’ll be city editor. New reporter Keith Cousins arrives from the chain’s weekly paper in Superior, Mont., the Mineral Independent.
IDAHO FALLS POST REGISTER
In January, Alex Stuckey, the Post Register's former reporter covering Idaho National Laboratory, accepted a job at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She is based in Jefferson City, Mo., and covers the Missouri Legislature. Also leaving … [Read more...]